Cloud migration is a key imperative for huge numbers of companies across all industries. Many businesses are currently reliant on an often badly-mixed collection of applications and data sources used to manage and support operations. A cloud migration offers the most effective way to align people and data resources, deliver fresh business capabilities through always up-to-date applications that enable users to gain improved insights from their data and create new business value.
To highlight the shift, Gartner reports that over 50% of enterprise IT spending will migrate to the cloud by 2025, up on the 41% (around $1.3 trillion) across 2022. For smaller businesses, Microsoft reports that 94% of cloud adopters see improved security, 59% see productivity benefits and 82% see cost savings. Whatever the business size or market, more firms are migrating to the cloud, driven by the desire for digital transformation or having found value in the flexibility and benefits of cloud operations during COVID-19.
Whatever the business need, cloud applications and services simplify operations. They shift the costs from capital to operational expenditure, and offer flexible usage models that grow with the company.
Read on to find out more about how cloud migration can transform your business.
A cloud migration is the process a business undertakes when moving its data and applications from local servers or data centers to a cloud environment, which can be public, private or hybrid cloud. This process must ensure that data and migrated or new applications work securely, and that leaders/users understand the benefits.
Cloud migration might sound like yet another IT trend, but the scale of adoption and movement from businesses only comes from the proven value that adopters discover. The many benefits can have a huge impact on both the bottom line, productivity and future business plans. And, if your competitors are adopting the cloud, then you’re at risk of falling behind.
Cloud does come with risks, as with any IT project, but the advantages listed below impact the entire business, across the leadership, users, IT department and partners who increasingly interact via cloud applications.
A cloud migration of any size requires a strategy to tick the many engagement, security, functionality and other boxes over what can be a lengthy process. As with any business task, there should be a checklist to guide the overall process, from defining the strategy to those who will take ownership for it, and establishing what can be migrated easily or requires more intensive efforts.
To ensure a seamless migration, businesses and IT leaders should consider conducting a cloud readiness assessment. By determining whether your current apps and data can be relocated to the cloud, you can minimize the impact on operational continuity.
Naturally, not every cloud migration goes perfectly, and there are some common mistakes to avoid. The accepted best practice is to create a Cloud Center of Excellence to define and deliver on the project, while ensuring that every affected leader and worker understands the reasons for the migration and its benefits.
Clarity is key to any succeeding in any business objective. Your cloud migration strategy must clearly identify the objectives through a roadmap, the scope, processes and expected results from the project. Without this, there’s room for confusion, failure to understand who’s responsible for each step and risk of steps being missed, which could result in broken applications, incompatible data and a costly retreat from the project.
With a strong strategy in place, the business leadership can track each step, technical teams can work on migrating data and applications at the right time and users will know what to do when their time for working in the cloud arrives.
The roadmap is the part of a strategy that defines when steps occur. It can communicate visually tasks, their owners and deadlines, and will highlight any problems or overruns during the practical steps of the cloud migration.